Baseball Coaches Adjust to New Pitch Count Rules ﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿

The National Federation of High School Sports mandated that all baseball coaches have a pitch count rule effective in the spring of 2017. Now high school pitchers will be limited to a pitch count of 105 pitches per game, after which they must rest four days before taking to the mound again.

The count will apply to modified, junior varsity and varsity-level teams, with varying counts corresponding to the level of play. During the regular season a varsity pitcher throwing 1-30 pitches must rest for one night. If a pitcher throws 31-65 pitches, he must have two nights’ rest, 66-95 pitches must have three nights’ rest and 96-105 pitches must rest for four nights.

The number of pitches on the scale increases slightly for the postseason to 103-125 with four day’s rest, 72-102 with three days, 41-71 with two days and 1-40 on a single night’s rest.

The responsibility falls to the baseball coaches to maintain all pitching charts, they also will be required to make any game chart available to the opponent prior to a game to show availability of pitchers for that given day.

“Each school will have the same pitch count tracking sheet. In between each half inning both coaches have to get together and make sure both teams have the same number of pitches. If there is a discrepancy, it goes to the home book.

The committee has also defined what is and is not considered a pitch.

A balk does not count as a pitch. Warm-ups do not count as a pitch. Any bullpen sessions do not count as a pitch. A throw over does not count as a pitch. If the umpire calls a ball or a strike, then is considered a live pitch.

There is concern about some of the baseball coaches at smaller schools finishing their season. Hopefully, this will help develop more pitchers, which is a good thing.